I'm always a little surprised when people mention that they have difficulty reading serif fonts, since I don't even notice the difference. My own website uses Times New Roman, and occasionally I'll consider switching it to something else, but the thought of editing 80+ pages always discourages me.
Anyway, I'm with shina_laris: I think the reason badfic is badly formatted isn't (necessarily) that the writers are new to the internet, but that they're younger. Because of that, they're both 1) more likely to choose, um, unique formatting in an attempt to assert their individuality, and 2) less likely to have vision problems that would prevent them from reading their own writing.
I think there is probably quite a bit of #1, as well as perhaps, not actually new to the internets, but just really technologically challenged, so they don't know how to turn off smart quotes or they don't realise that on a monitor paragraphs need line breaks separating them to make them legible.
But I think it's mainly #2. I mean, if someone doesn't realise that sentences need commas and periods to make them readable, why would they be able to tell what formatting would be bad or good?
I've seen cases of both. Some people, yeah, they're noobs. And some people, yeah, they really think fanfic is better with lots and lots of rape scenes, cutting, anorexia... and lots of ascii art decorations, varying font size for emphasis, random capitalisation, and use of line breaks to indicate mood. And some people are noobs and model themselves on the first fanfic they see, which is by the people who think fanfic is better with etc etc etc.
It's not just formatting, either. With truly appalling fanfic, there are also lapses in spelling, grammar, and, well, critical thinking skills, e.g. sentences with no object, or no verb, or both, where it looks like it's just not that the author just forgot to type the word, so much as that she forgot what she was writing in mid-sentence.
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Anyway, I'm with
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But I think it's mainly #2. I mean, if someone doesn't realise that sentences need commas and periods to make them readable, why would they be able to tell what formatting would be bad or good?
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It's not just formatting, either. With truly appalling fanfic, there are also lapses in spelling, grammar, and, well, critical thinking skills, e.g. sentences with no object, or no verb, or both, where it looks like it's just not that the author just forgot to type the word, so much as that she forgot what she was writing in mid-sentence.